1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a combination Bingo and Poker game. In particular, the present invention relates to a combination Bingo and Poker game which is played similarly to traditional Bingo games with the winning Bingo places on the game boards or sheets having playing card indicia associated with them. The playing card indicia are used to form a Poker hand. The game allows the winner of a BINGO to potentially win a second time by forming a Poker hand with the card indicia revealed by the winning BINGO configuration.
2. Description of Related Art
Applicant had previously created a Bingo game where the places on the game board contained playing card indicia as well as Bingo numbers. A game board for that game is similar to the WIN-RIVER CASINO game board as shown in FIG. 1. In this previous game, each row on the game board contained playing card indicia for only the five (5) highest cards for each suit. Therefore, each row on the board represented a winning Poker hand corresponding to a straight flush for each of the four suits. Since the standard Bingo game board contains five (5) rows, the middle row of the game board contained jokers. In this game, there was no need for the winner to calculate the Poker hand. The Poker hand would always be a straight flush if the winner has a straight row BINGO. This Bingo game did not include random placement of the playing card indicia on the game board. The game also did not use the entire deck, but rather only the five (5) highest cards for each suit.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,393,057 to Marnell, II describes an electronic Poker game which is electronically connected to a Bingo game. The Bingo matrix has indicia representing randomly selected winning Poker hands. Upon occurrence of selected Poker hands in the Poker game, the results are automatically entered into the matrix of the Bingo game. The primary game being played is Poker with a secondary game of Bingo being played simultaneously. This game is not played similarly to Bingo, the primary game is Poker with the players playing numerous games of Poker before being able to achieve a BINGO.
The other related art has shown various types of Bingo games having added features. Illustrative are U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,021,936 to Kravitz, and Re. 34,673 to Desbiens.
Kravitz describes a language teaching game played similar to Bingo. The locations on the Bingo card are represented by words or phrases. Upon achieving BINGO, the player receives extra points by constructing sentences from the words and phrases under the winning Bingo configuration.
Desbiens describes a two level Bingo game. The first level is played similarly to traditional Bingo. Once a BINGO is obtained, the player scratches off the winning Bingo locations to determine whether an instant prize was also won.
The other related art has also shown various types of poker games having added features. Illustrative are U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,723,377 to Salomon, 2,355,785 to Dorfman, 4,364,567 and 4,441,714 to Goott, and 4,560,171 to Anthony.
Dorfman shows a Poker game which uses game boards having playing card indicia. Additional cards are dealt from the deck to be associated with the playing card indicia on the game boards. The game can be played similarly to a standard Poker game. The game can also be played similar to a horse race where the player, having the highest Poker hand when all of the cards have been dealt, is considered the winner of the race.
Salomon describes a Poker game where each player has a game board having a different arrangement of cards therein. A dealer selects cards from a deck of fifty-two (52) cards. As the dealer selects the cards, the player marks the matching card on his game board. A winner can be determined by whichever player has all of the cards of a winning hand. Alternatively, a winner can be determined when a player covers a complete row or column on his game board.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,364,567 and 4,441,714 to Goott describe combination Poker-Keno-type games.
Anthony describes a Poker game which has a playing board having places containing the fifty-two (52) cards of a Poker deck. The places also contain a number which is not associated with the playing cards. To play, numbers are chosen corresponding to the numbers on the playing board. The player's Poker hand is based on the cards associated with the places on the board having the chosen numbers.
There remains the need for a combination Bingo and Poker game which is played similarly to standard Bingo and which has playing card indicia on the places of the winning BINGO which are used to form a Poker hand.
Objects
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a combination Bingo and Poker game which is played similarly to Bingo. Further, it is an object of the present invention to provide a combination Bingo and Poker game which can be played by a plurality of players at one time. Still further, it is an object of the present invention to provide a combination Bingo and Poker game where the places on the game board are provided with randomly selected Bingo numbers and randomly selected playing card indicia. Further still, it is an object of the present invention to provide a combination Bingo and Poker game where the playing card indicia of the winning Bingo places are used to form a Poker hand, which may be a winning Poker hand. Further, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method of playing a combination Bingo and Poker game where the game board places are provided with Bingo numbers and playing card indicia and Bingo numbers are randomly selected which correspond to the Bingo numbers on the game board and where the game card indicia of places corresponding to a winning Bingo configuration are used to form a Poker hand. These and other objects will become increasingly apparent by reference to the following drawing and the description.